Jewish UK Member of Parliament visits Pittsburgh
“Without the U.S.,” he said, “European Jewry would have all died and the United Kingdom would have fallen under the boot of Hitler”
Alex Sobel spent a weekend in September doing what many across the U.S. are doing: campaigning for a presidential candidate.
Don’t let the fact that Sobel is a United Kingdom member of parliament for Leeds Central and Headingley distract you.
Given that the British politician is a member of the Labour and Co-operative Party, it should surprise no one that he was knocking on doors in Squirrel Hill and downtown in support of Democrat Kamala Harris.
Sobel, who has served as a member of parliament since 2017, said that most across the pond support Harris — even those who are more conservative.
“From a Jewish perspective, we need to remember whatever the Republicans say in terms of support for Israel, Democrat presidents have done more than anyone else,” Sobel said. “The Iron Dome was instituted by Obama. Obama provided more defensive support to Israel than any other president. My personal point of view is that Obama was, apart from FDR, probably the best U.S. president. In terms of the Jewish community, that’s definitely the case.”
Sobel didn’t make the more than 3,600-mile journey from Leeds to Pittsburgh solely to campaign for Harris. After spending time in New York as part of Climate Week, the MP came to the Steel City to visit Michal Friedman and her family.
The families have a shared history. Sobel’s and Friedman’s maternal grandparents fought together against the Nazis and emigrated together to Poland in 1954, where the two families lived in one apartment, before moving to Israel.
“My grandfather fought in the Soviet army,” Sobel said. “If you lived in Poland or Lithuania when the war broke out, your choice was staying and going to a concentration camp, or fighting the Nazis in the Soviet army.”
Sobel came to the U.K. as a university student.
He has recounted his family’s history, including those murdered by the Nazis, during his time in the parliament. Leeds, he said, has the fourth largest Jewish community in the UK and the third largest in England.
“By U.S. standards it’s not very large,” he said. “We’re talking about between 10,000 to 12,000 people.”
Leeds is larger than Pittsburgh, with a population of about 800,000. The Jewish community, Sobel said, is made up primarily of liberal and Reform Jews, but there are also members of the community who are Orthodox and Lubavitch.
While the Jewish community in the United Kingdom has seen anti-immigrant riots, there hasn’t been the type of antisemitic activity Pittsburgh has experienced. Its university campuses, however, especially the Russell Group — comprised of 24 public research universities across the United Kingdom — have experienced some protests.
“We had an incident at a Hillel House, which is the Jewish social house, that had antisemitic graffiti painted on it. In terms of the U.K., our campus in Leeds was about the worst,” he said.
Unlike what’s happened in and around the University of Pittsburgh, Sobel said, “What we haven’t had was any physical assaults.”
While the U.K. and the U.S. share a special relationship, he said, the U.K. doesn’t share the same bond with Israel as America does.
“I don’t think it’s the same, I’m afraid to say,” he said. “But I think the U.K./U.S. relationship has been very strong.”
The United Kingdom, Sobel said, understands the sacrifice America made during both world wars.
“Without the U.S.,” he said, “European Jewry would have all died and the United Kingdom would have fallen under the boot of Hitler”
The two countries both have interests in the Middle East, he noted, and both are members of NATO, which he views as “vital” because “it defends Europe and Western democracy against terrorism and terrorist organizations.”
The organization, Sobel said, is helping in the fight against Iran, the Houthis and in the Ukraine, without requiring either the U.S. or the U.K. to have boots on the ground. As to the latter conflict, he said it’s important to remember that Ukraine has one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.
“The president is Jewish. If you’re in certain parts of the community, [Ukraine] is the center of your Jewish life,” he said. “We need to ensure that we do our part by supporting NATO. Being part of NATO supports the Jewish community in Ukraine and, more broadly, Europe.”
It’s with that outlook that Sobel decided to campaign for Harris while in Pittsburgh.
“We’re at the point in the world now with Israel, with Ukraine, with China and the threat to Taiwan, [where] we need an international approach and only Kamala Harris brings that,” he said. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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